What things should I learn?

[Rayvolution]

@Varkas

@Rayvolution

Not saying the degree is worthless or that you won’t learn anything, I’m just saying you have to watch out. Just because the guy has a degree doesn’t mean he knows jack.

Maybe there is a misunderstanding here, but maybe it’s also a difference in the education systems of different countries.

I’ve studied “Informatik”, which roughly translates to computer science, got a “Diplom”, which is roughly equivalent to a masters degree, although I’ve studied 6.5 years instead of four.

Programming was not a big part in my studies. We learned some basics, and had some programming projects going, but it was really more of a side thing.

What I’ve learned is how computers work, how CPUs work in particularl, how an operating system can be designed, now network transport works, how parallel computing works, how to make a compiler. Also about databases, transactional system, human-computer interfaces, formal languages, space/time calculational complexity, data structures, algorithms, programming paradigmas, artificial intelligence and some more.

I’ve also learned about steering and control of robots and inustrial machines, but that was a free choice of mine. I could as wel have chose business and administration as side field.

Those studies are far away from being “worthless”, but they do not make you a programmer. That is not even the intention of the study, at least not as it was designed here. They give you a lot of useful knowledge though, if you decide to become a programmer.

@Rayvolution

… but when it comes to actual output they fall flat on their face because they have no logical/problem solving skills.

Considering the amount of math and theory that was part of my studies, I really doubt that people with a CompSci degree managed to finish their studies without such skills.

But as said, they are not programmers, they have a different training and background. Maybe you expect the wrong things from them.

where are you from? I get this strange feeling your CompSci and the CompSci I’m seeing arent the same thing. Most programmers I know have CompSci degrees that are “tailored” for programming. Or at least, they think they do. :o

I should still apologize for my “degree is worthless” statement, that isn’t really what I meant. They are given the opportunity to learn a ton, and that’s great! What I really meant was some people are exposed to the knowledge, manage to scrape by and pass the tests, but they don’t learn anything by the end of it. So even though they have the degree, their knowledge level is below par, so the degree itself is meaningless.

These guys are the exception to the rule, I was just making the point that just having the degree doesn’t magically mean you know what you’re talking about, it just means there’s a much, much higher chance you do!

EDIT: Noticed you list yourself as 15 years experience, is there a chance that the field has simply changed since you were in college? (Just an honest question, since I’m just basing my information on a very small pool of people in my area)

[Varkas]

I’m from Germany, and finiished my studies in 1998 and I’m working as a software developer since then.

The field has changed since then, definitely. Nowaydays there are two studies offered, the traditional “Informatik” (Computer Science) which is heavy on theory, and a new one “Software Technology/Software Engineering”, which is tailored to program design and programming. The company which I work for lately nowadays mostly hires people from the latter type, and it’s much more suited to the actual work that we do.

Both the newer studies cover less, but one can finish them in four years, while that was nearly impossible at my time. With my 6.5 years, I was just a bit below the average. The whole studying field was reformed in the recent years, to match the international bachelor and masters degrees. It’s more like school now, while I was still somewhat free in my choices during my studies, and I regret a bit that I was so lazy and didn’t make better use of all the offers. The new people who come into the compay are very skilled, I must say, despite the shorter studies. I think the tradoff was just more focus on the core skills, and less of the backround/peripheral knowledge.

Personally I think it was great that I had about 25% of mechanical engineering with focus on robot and machine control in addition to the computer science studies, it really widens the view to know about factories and automatized production, too.

Unfortunately I never learned much about graphics design, or design in general. And I feel that particualrly the lack in design skills hampers my game development, because I lack the right ideas.

Also I’m growing a bit tired of programming, many challenges are gone, and teh programming part of making games has more or less become boring work, even time consuming. Some of my projects just stopped, because I didn’t feel motivated to write down the code, even that I had figured out solutions.

Well. I think there are those cases which you describe, people who managed to get a degree, but “don’t know stuff”. You find them in all fields, unfortunately. Looking at my successful colleagues I see that most of them have a wide range of “real life” skills, crafting, construction, as well as art and musical skills. Not the typical brainiacs you’d expect, some are quite handy.